Busier Than Ever

Last Friday we had our student showcase at RCW.  My students did awesome. They were all smiles and good energy and the audience wanted more, which is exactly how we like leaving them. They worked hard and kicked butt and I hope they are happy with their great achievement. But now that all of that is over with, I thought I'd have some time and space to breathe, but no, it's not like that at all.

The next pressing performance is a gig with Mark Izu and "friends." Not quite sure who all his friends are, but we go into rehearsal next week for that, and Janet had me go over stuff with her. I have a feeling that it won't be a "play this thing now," kind of thing. The direction may be more nebulous and open to creativity and interpretation.  Which is why I'm glad that Janet likes to always be prepared, and I'm glad we had a little session today. I think this will be more nerve wracking to me since I'm not used to this kind of style but it will be good experience for me. They're jazz musicians so I'll just play it cool, man, you know, like jazz.

I'd also like to work on my new song, and we've created a shift and opening up of the piece that leaves it more up to me to figure out what to do with it. This will require some quiet time with my practice pad and my imagination. It's the time part that I'm short on.

Also Michaelle is teaching us cool little things and I want to just go over them all day. I'd also like to work some of the rhythms she's shown us into taiko parts. What's great about her class is that everything we're learning is exactly the opposite of what I've ever been taught about taiko. For one thing we are learning hand drumming, which means you hit the drum with your hand. I remember once we were trying to lug taiko from one place to the next and I got yelled at for touching the head of the drum with my finger. Jeez. Now I have to play the drum with my hands and there's this itty bitty part of me that fears someone is going to jump out of the woodwork and yell at me again. Also we've been working on stick stuff and there are times we play the side of the drum with the stick, which is also a big taiko no-no for me. Some groups hit the side of the drum, but ours didn't (because it makes dents, and somebody has to sand all those dents out eventually). I am really trying hard in this class. I have a hard time remembering patterns, and that is a challenge. I'm a slow learner, and I'm glad Michaelle is always so patient with me, and I'm glad also she pushes me and makes me learn variations. She keeps it interesting, although anything we do is interesting.

And finally I need to come up with syllabi for next session's classes. I'm going to try a new approach to the beginning class. I'd like to make it more fun and less work for them. Less pressure to go home and practice. I'd like to see if I can keep attrition to a minimum if I make it more fun for them. Then if I see that there are more serious minded folks I can eventually ask them to join the intermediates, which is where I'll ask them to work harder. It'll be an experiment. Less stress for me, and for them. Janet warned me that I may not like having a class like that. We'll see. 

So back to work for me. But this is good though. Work on skills. Work on my class. Work on performance. Work on creating my own song. I like this. Just wish I had more hours in my day.